ARC's 30 Days Wild

We’re taking part in this year’s 30 Days Wild and will be sharing amphibian and reptile related ideas every day to help you plan your wild month! If you haven’t signed up yet there’s still time! Visit www.wildlifetrusts.org/30DaysWild

Day 1 - Play snakes and toad tunnels!

Play our great snakes and toad tunnels game! Follow the plucky toad as it climbs up toad tunnels and slides down the grass snakes on his way to the breeding pond to get the best pick of the females avoiding danger and distractions along the way! Download your printable board below.

Day 2 - Go on a guided nature walk!

On Wednesday 6th June, join us for a Dorset heath ramble and pond visit to discover the wildlife found on our Ferndown Common nature reserve, with particular interest in the sand lizard and grass snake. Find out more on the event page!

Look out for more guided walks throughout the summer and if we don't have an event near you why not check out your local Wildlife Trust website?

Day 3 - Create an amphibian or reptile themed collage from natural materials!

Explore your garden or local park and gather some natural materials such as leaves, twigs and feathers and use them to create a beautiful collage of a newt, toad, frog, snake or lizard!

Day 4 - Learn about the UK's loudest amphibian!

In spring, on warm, still nights, the adult male natterjacks toads gather round the breeding pools and emit a rasping call. The louder the call the more chance they have of attracting a female. This can be heard up to a mile away! On one occasion a clever young male was seen calling from inside a jam jar which amplified the sound! Learn more about these lovely little toads on our species information page.

Day 5 - Become a conservation volunteer!

If you'd like to spend more time outdoors, want a fun way to get fit or would just like to meet some great new people why not come along to one of our volunteer tasks and make a big difference to local wildlife at the same time! Check our our volunteer pages for ore information. If we don’t have any events near you why not check out your local ARG or Wildlife Trust?

Day 6 - Improve your amphibian identification skills!

Do you know how to tell the difference between a frog and a toad or which newt you have in your pond? Download our free amphibian ID guide and brush up your skills!

Day 8 - Create a log pile!

Stacking logs or other woody cuttings is a great way of creating a habitat feature that may be useful to amphibians and reptiles. As wood ages and decomposes it holds more moisture and offers an increasingly favourable habitat for frog, toad and newts. Amphibians prefer to shelter in small spaces rather than large cavities, so packing some of the spaces in a log pile with loose soil or wood chippings should improve its value. Slow-worms and grass snakes can use the larger spaces as refuges to hide from predators. Take a look at our 'Dragons in your Garden' leaflet for more ideas on how to encourage amphibians and reptiles into your garden.

Day 9 - Do an amphibian and reptile themed crossword!

Test your knowledge of the UK’s frogs, toads, newts, lizards and snakes in this fun crossword! Download it now!

Day 10 - Support your favourite wildlife charity!

Why not become an ARC Friend? Help us give a voice to the UK's amphibians and reptiles - saving species, improving habitats and enhancing lives in the process. You’ll also receive a Welcome Pack (containing ID guides, leaflets, posters, a pen, pencil, pin badge and the most recent copy of our magazine HopGossip!), invites to our special Friends Days and discounts off our events and conferences.

Day 11 - Find a froglet

At this time of year frog tadpoles are making their magical transformation into perfect tiny frogs; growing legs, losing their external gills and reabsorbing their tails. Once this is done they will emerge from their pond by the hundreds in search of food. How many little frogs can you find in your garden or local green space? Find out more about frogs on our species information page and don’t forget to record your sightings!

Day 12 - Play ARC Snap!

Play a game of ARC Snap or Newt Snap: our two family friendly card games!

Newt Snap - how fast can you match the patterns on newt bellies? Race an opponent, team, or against the clock!

ARC Snap - play snap or picture pairs with stunning pictures of the UK mainland's thirteen native amphibian and reptiles.

These great games are available to download and print at home or to buy from the ARC online shop!

ARC Snap(PDF 1MB)

Newt Snap(PDF 4MB)

Visit the ARC online shop!

Day 13 - Learn about the UK’s rarest snake

Few people in Britain today will have heard of the smooth snake, which is one of our rarest native animals. Nevertheless, this is a snake with character, charm and beauty - its value to our heritage and the heathland ecosystems in which it lives is irreplaceable. Find out more about these fascinating reptiles, our work to protect them and how you can help!

Day 14 - Improve your reptile identification skills!

Do you know how to tell the difference between a grass snake and an adder or which lizard you have in your local green space? Download our free reptile ID guide and brush up your skills!

Day 15 - Try our pond themed spot the difference!

Test your observational skills with our pond themed spot the difference! Can you find all 13 changes? Download it now!

Day 16 - Visit the New Forest Reptile Centre

Why not visit the New Forest Reptile Centre near Lyndhurst, Hampshire and see how many of our native amphibians and reptiles you can spot! We visited on our ARC Friends Day 2016 and had a great time. Read more about our trip, then visit www.new-forest-national-park.com/new-forest-reptile-centre.html and start planning you visit!

Day 17 - Create a mini huglekulture

A huglekulture mound is a large pile of wood buried under layers of soil and humus. A hugle heap offers a number of benefits to growing plants and provides habitat for a host of wildlife! Why not create one in your garden or allotment? Download our Community Gardens leaflet for instructions!

Day 18 - Toad flowerpot challenge

Take part in our toad flowerpot challenge! Common toads often have a favourite place to hide in gardens or allotments – perhaps a flowerpot or a rockery stone. Send us a photo of your toad’s hiding place (only if you can do this safely and without harming the toad). If you can’t find one why not create a simple toad house from an upturned flowerpot with a small piece broken out to create a door. Find more tips on how to encourage toads into your garden in our 'Dragons in your Garden' leaflet.

Day 19 - Read HopGossip!

Relax in the your garden or local park and read a copy of our bi-annual magazine HopGossip! Find out about what staff at ARC have been up to and how your support helps us protect the UK’s amphibians and reptiles and the habitats on which they depend. If you are an ARC Friend look out for the next issue in the post to you very soon! If not, you can download past editions via our archive page.

Day 20 - Learn about the UK’s rarest lizard!

The sand lizard is the UK’s rarest lizard. They are now only found on a handful of heathland and sand dune sites. For over twenty five years ARC has lead the fight to save sand lizards by managing habitat, advising land owners and reintroducing them to sites where they have been lost. Read more about this work and how you can help.

Day 21 - Report your amphibian and reptile sightings!

Let us know if you have seen any frogs, toads, newts, snakes or lizards via the Record Pool. The Record Pool is an online recording tool, which collects information on reptiles and amphibians in the UK and makes it available, locally and nationally, for conservation purposes. This collaboration between ARC and ARG UK aims to capture data that would otherwise be lost to the conservation community. Find links to this and other recording tools below.

Day 22 - Visit one of our nature reserves!

ARC manage over 80 nature reserves across the UK featuring a wide variety of species and habitats. Some of these beautiful sites are open to the public so why not take advantage of the sunshine and plan a visit?

Day 23 - Spot a slow-worm!

Do you have a compost heap in your garden? These are one of the slow-worm’s favourite hiding places. Although they look like snakes, slow-worms are in fact legless lizards that love to hide in warm, dark places and eat slugs. Can you spot one of these ‘gardener’s friends’ in your garden or allotment?

Day 24 - Try our amphibians and reptiles word search!

Have a go at our tricky amphibians and reptiles themed word search. Can you find all 12 words?

Day 25 - Learn how DNA technology is being used to help save Scotland's wildlife!

During ARC’s Great Crested Newt Detectives project, we produced a fab book called "Amazing Animals, Brilliant Science; how DNA technology is being used to help save Scotland's wildlife" which gives an introduction to DNA and how scientists use DNA technology to answer a huge variety of questions.

Children from across Scotland have helped to create this colourful book, with wonderful paintings, drawings and writing entries which were submitted to the Amazing Animals, Brilliant Science competition in 2017. The winning and highly-commended entries (plus several others) have been included.

Find out more about this beautiful book, the project that bought it about and download a free PDF below. You can also buy a hard copy of the book from our online shop!

Day 26 - Make a bouncy grass snake!

Download our free template and get crafty making your very own bouncy grass snake. You can also download a plain template and add your own markings. Why not try to make an adder too? Visit www.arc-trust.org/30DaysWild to get the templates!

Grass snake template (PDF)

Plain snake template (PDF)

Day 27 - Go on a newt hunt!

On a warm evening take a torch and sit quietly next to your local pond (taking care not to fall in!). If you are lucky you will see newts swimming to the surface and taking mouthfuls of air! At this time of year newts are busy breeding. Females wrap each fertilised egg in a leaf to protect it. Learn more about the UK’s three species of newts on our species information pages.

Day 28 - Learn about the UK’s only venomous snake

When walking in open ‘wild’ habitats such as heathlands, commons, moorland, sea cliffs, dunes and woodland rides you may be lucky enough to spot one of the UK’s most shy and beautiful predators. The adder is the UK’s only venomous snake and although they often get bad press they are very timid and prefer to hide away from people and their pets. If you do come across one basking in the sunshine be sure to admire it from a distance. To find out more about adders download our leaflets below:

Day 29 - Do a Summer Snake Stoke Take!

Snake populations are declining across the UK and gardens can be an important wildlife corridor between disappearing habitats. Having a grass snake or slow-worm (legless lizard) visit your garden is a rare wildlife treat! We’re interested in any sightings of snakes in gardens. Join in with the Summer Snake Stock Take 2018 and help us assess how snakes are faring.

Day 30 - Create a mini wildlife pond!

One of the most effective ways of helping wildlife in your garden is to add water! You can create a mini wildlife pond by sinking an old washing up bowl or water tight container in the ground and adding a few native pond plants and pebbles. Be sure to create at least one sloping side with stones and gravel so that small animals can climb in and out safely. ARC patron and BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has made a short video with hints and tips on how to make your mini pond brilliant. Watch it now and get digging!